Toothbrush holder



Aug. 30, 1960 l. J. STARWORTH TOOTHBRUSH HOLDER Filed June 12. 1958 INVENTOR.

arena tire Patented Aug. 30,1960

TOOTUSH HOLDER Irving J. Starworth, 23823 117th Road, Elrnont, NE. Filed June 12, 1958, Ser. No. 741,541

1 Claim. (Cl. 312-207) This invention relates to small cabinets specially designed to hold toothbrushes, and aims to provide toothbrush holding cabinets characterized by their pleasing appearance, their simple and inexpensive construction, their ability to display the toothbrushes housed therein and expose them to the sterilizing effect of light while protecting the brushes from dust borne bacteria, and by the fact that the cabinets can be closed and opened by the use of the toothbrushes housed therein.

The storage of toothbrushes in bathrooms is one of the petty problems which plague the housewife. The common solution of the problem is the provision of open holders into which the handles of the toothbrushes are inserted in some fashion. This, of course, exposes the toothbrushes to ambient conditions, especially to dust borne bacteria. As a result, there has been a demand for some sort of housing which will protect the toothbrushes from dust. Numerous types of cabinets have been suggested, but the problem of an inexpensive cabinet which is easy to install and simple to operate has not heretofore been solved.

An object of the present invention is the provision of toothbrush cabinets which protect the toothbrushes housed therein from ambient dust, which are at the same time easy to open and close by the use of the toothbrushes handles. Another object is the provision of a cabinet which is transparent, so that light falling on the cabinet will have a sterilizing effect on the toothbrushes housed therein. Still another object is the provision of means for interlocking the cabinets so that the assemblages may be made of as many units as desired. Another object is the provision of cabinets which will hold a tube of dentifrice.

These and other objects are attained in accordance with the present invention by providing transparent interlocking cabinets which may be adhered to a wall, as by pressure sensitive adhesive, and which are provided with vertically hinged doors carrying on their bottoms inwardly extending flanges with curved slots into which toothbrushes may be inserted by their handles, the slots cooperating with matching slots in the bottom walls of the cabinets so arranged that when the doors are closed, the two slots provide an opening large enough to permit the toothbrush handle to pass through, but small enough to prevent the brush portion from passing through the openmg.

The invention can be best understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which one form of the cabinet of this invention is shown by way of example only, and not by way of limitation, it being understood that modifications of the specific device shown can be made without departing from the invention, which is defined in the claim.

in the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a pair of nested cabinets in accordance with the invention;

Figure 2 is a horizontal section along the line 2-2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a side elevation of the invention; and

Figure 4 is a partial vertical section along the lines 4-4 of Figure 1, showing the method of interlocking the cabinets.

Each of the cabinets of the invention comprises a box consisting of a top 10, sides 11, a back 12 and a bottom 13. A door 14 is mounted in the open front of the box by hinge pins 15 which fit into openings 16 in the top and bottom of the box. The boxes and doors are constructed of transparent slightly flexible plastic such as Lucite (polyacrylic resin) so that the hinge pins 15, molded integral with the door, pressure fit into the openlugs 16, and are retained by the elasticity of the material.

The bottom 13 of each box has an opening 17 in its front end, with one straight side 18 and a curved side 19, providing a substantially semi-circular back edge 20 for the opening. Integral with each door 14, on its bottom, is an arcuate flange 21 having an opening 22 therein which at its semi-circular back edge 23 is slightly wider than the width of a toothbrush handle 24, so that the matching hole formed with the opening 17 will pass a toothbrush handle but retain the brush proper when the door is closed as shown in Figure 3. By grasping the handle of the brush and pulling outwardly, the toothbrush is withdrawn and the door opened simultaneously. The door is closed simply by reinserting the toothbrush into opening 22; when the handle hits the rear end 23, it causes the door 14- to swing about the hinges 15, and causes the entire door, with the toothbrush, to lock into the position shown in the left hand cabinet of Figure 2. It will be noted that the semi-circular back ends 2% and 23 of the bottom and the door are in alignment when the door is closed. A projection 30 may be provided on the top front of each cabinet; the projection will hold a container of dentifrice in position on the top 10.

The individual cabinets may be fastened to a wall as desired. In view of the light weight of the cabinet combined with the brush and the dentifrice container, one method of attachment may be by a layer of pressure sensitive or other adhesive 32, shown in Figures 2 and 3 as attaching the cabinets to the walls 34. This layer is preferably supplied by applying one side of a double faced adhesive tape to the cabinet, the other side to the wall.

To enable the cabinets to be interlocked, one side wall 11 of each cabinet is provided with dovetail grooves 36 adjacent its top and bottom, and the other wall is provided with matching dovetail projections 38 which slide in the grooves 36 to form interlocking multiple units as shown particularly in Figure 4.

Preferably, a part of each doorfront is provided with an etched surface portion 40 on which a name can be written to identify the owner of the toothbrush in the cabinet.

It will be obvious from the above that the cabinets thus provided can easily be closed and opened by the toothbrushes which they protect from ambient dust, that the cabinets are transparent to light so that the sterilizing action of the light serves to sterilize the stored brushes, that the cabinets are inexpensive, easy to interlock to form multiple units, and to install, and yet are sturdy and rugged.

What is claimed is:

A toothbrush cabinet comprising a box of transparent plastic having back, top and side Walls, a bottom wall partially cut away to provide an opening therein extending rearwardly from the front of the cabinet and terminating in an arcuate rear end, and a door vertically hinged at the front of the cabinet and adapted to close said front, the door carrying a rearwardly extending arcuate flange adjacent to its bottom edge, the flange being partially cut away to provide an arcuate slot therein in which a toothbrush handle can be inserted, the rear end of said slot being adapted to be in alignment with the side rear of said opening in said bottom Wall when the door is closed, said opening and said slot in closed position providing a passage just large enough to pass ,a toothbrush handle but too small to pass the brush portion of the toothbrush, the alignment of the rear ends of said opening and slot providing for the retention of the door in locked position by a toothbrush inserted therein.

UNITED STATES PATENTS Wybaillie Nov. 21, 1916 Keller Apr. 2, 1918 Wever Dec. 24, 1918 Rozzi et *al. May 31, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS France July 16, '1956 

